Join experts from New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans Photo Alliance, Louisiana State University, and the Historic New Orleans Collection to learn about best practices for preservation of family photograph collections. Following presentations, participants will have the opportunity to bring a limited number of family photographs, in a variety of formats, to be digitized and brought home that day. NOMA will not keep any copies of digitized photographs.

This program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers, and attendees will tour the exhibition with Brian Piper, Assistant Curator of Photographs.

Free with advanced registration. Registration includes access to the museum galleries for the day.

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Please note: Up to 10 attendees can participate per registered family.

Additional Program Information

Photographic objects NOMA can digitize:

• Photographic prints up to 8 x 10 inches including color, black & white, and instant film prints
• Mounted 35 mm slides
• Unmounted 35 mm film (negative or slide film)
• Sheet film to 8 x 10 inches (negative or slide film)
• Daguerreotypes and tintypes in good condition

NOMA cannot digitize:

• Professional studio portraits with a watermark or embossment, such as prints from a school portrait company
• Photographs, negatives, and slides with extensive damage or mold
• Photographic objects that are broken or damaged (e.g. broken glass negatives or rusty tintypes)

Program Speakers

About Mallory Taylor

Mallory Taylor is an Associate Curator at the Historic New Orleans Collection where she works with the photographic holdings. After graduating from Savannah College of Art & Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography, Taylor discovered her interest in working with photographic collections while interning at the National Archives and Records Administration. She later attended Ryerson University, in coordination with the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, where she earned a Master of Arts in Photographic Preservation and Collections Management.

About Edward Benoit III

Edward Benoit III is Associate Director and Associate Professor in the School of Library & Information Science at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge. He is the coordinator of the archival studies and cultural heritage resource management programs. He received an MA in History, MLIS and PhD in Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research focuses on participatory and community archives, non-traditional archival materials, climate change, and archival education. He is the founder and director of the Virtual Footlocker Project, which examines the personal archiving habits of the 21st century soldier in an effort to develop new digital capture and preservation technologies to support their needs.

About Lisa Cates

Lisa Cates is a photographer, educator, and producer who specializes in travel and expedition programs. She has worked with National Geographic Expeditions, National Geographic Student Expeditions, the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, and Nobechi Creative. Lisa Cates is the Director of the New Orleans Photo Alliance (NOPA), a nonprofit focused on elevating photography in the Gulf Coast states through exhibitions, programs and opportunities. In this capacity, she has overseen exhibitions in the NOPA gallery, partnering with institutions like the New Orleans Museum of Art, the New Orleans Jazz Museum, the National World War II Museum, and Tulane University. She has been an active member of the committee for New Orleans’s annual festival of photography, PhotoNOLA, since 2014, and has been a juror for Critical Mass and the Photoville Fence.

About the New Orleans Photo Alliance

The mission of the New Orleans Photo Alliance (NOPA) is to encourage the understanding and appreciation of photography through exhibitions, opportunities, and educational programs. NOPA runs a community photo center at 7800 Oak Street and hosts the annual PhotoNOLA festival every December.

This program is funded under a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of either the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

[Artwork credit: Photographer unidentified, “To My Sweet Baby Brother, From Sister”, ca. 1945. Gelatin silver print in original sleeve mount. Robert Langmuir African American Photograph Collection, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.]